Yakuza Kiwami Review

I don’t remember Japan being this dangerous when I visited in 2007. I guess I visited the wrong areas.

Yakuza Kiwami is an updated remake of the first Yakuza game. If you’ve never played Yakuza, as I didn’t when we received the review code for it, then this is probably the place you want to start when it comes to getting into the series.

Yakuza Kiwami’s story revolves around a young and upcoming Yakuza member named Kazuma Kiryu, who takes the wrap for the murder of a Yakuza boss that was committed by his ‘best friend’ (notice those quotes) Akira Nishikiyama. After spending a decade in jail doing his time for murder, Kiryu gets out and finds that the love of his life, Yumi, has gone missing. To add to this shock, he is also disrespected and constantly hunted by his former friend Nishikiyama, for no apparent reason. If all that wasn’t enough, there is also 10 billion yen missing from the overall Yakuza family, which may point back to Yumi somehow, which would also explain her disappearance. This is mob-like sh*t here that would be a make for a great movie.

With all this said, let’s break this game down.

The initial structure of Yakuza Kiwami is ambitious. It’s a mixture of an open world experience with fighting sprinkled in and a backbone made from a role playing game. That’s a lot of things in one title. It will remind you of Shenmue in a sense, as you can upgrade/develop your character as your story progresses, as well as explore huge environments in hopes of getting lost in their beauty and construction. You can do all of this before making it back to a linear adventure that squarely sits in the middle of the gameplay design. Shenmue had a knack for bringing out the most from its world in the gameplay and Yakuza Kiwami follows that pretty well.

First and foremost, the gameplay wants you to explore sections of a Japanese city, including going into shops and picking up items, as you come and go. It creates a massive set of environments for you to reside in while adding side quests you bump into to make it seem so much bigger. The side quests are interesting, as some range from long drawn out adventures, such as finding a homeless man a coat, all the way to fighting a large burly Japanese fellow in a parking lot…twice. There is certainly a mixed bag of nuts to the side quests, but they add value to the environment and the overall gameplay experience. It’s not simply that you’re walking through streets looking for the next hook into the main storyline.

When you’re not exploring in the city, or finding a coat for a homeless man, you’re going to run into a lot of people on the streets that want to kick your ass. From street punks to ruffians and all the way to Yakuza, you will constantly have Kiryusan in danger of being in a fight. While I enjoy a good fighting game, I simply do not like the amount of people that want to take Kiryu-san on in the streets. Folks, it’s a lot of fighting. It’s constant enough where it disrupts enjoying the visuals and the environments, which can take away some splendor to the game. It’s possible to run away from a group, but you’re destined to run back into them at some point again. Regardless, it’s constant and it happens quite a bit, which can cause a disruption, especially when you’re trying to explore the cityscape a little bit.

If there was anything positive that came out of all the fighting, then it would be that you get money and experience from the fights. The money part will help you purchase items (weapons, clothing, health related items) and the experience helps you to upgrade your level tree. That tree is pretty darn big too. As you gain points from the fights, you can upgrade your style of fighting, body, technique and other attributes the game offers. The trees are extensive and massive as trees go, so the game knows its size and expects you to have enough time and story to make it to maxing these things out. In addition to size, I have to compliment the developers at Sega for making the trees worthwhile. Upgrading Kiryu-san makes for a motivated and progressive experience with Yakuza. Adding better health, better ways to fight and generally making Kiryu-san better within the adventure is motivating. It’s an element that almost (just almost) forgives the amount of fights your character runs into during gameplay. Anyway, the trees were well thought out.

Staying with fighting, the controls are so-so when it comes to getting into a fight. While I won’t go as far as saying that I dislike them, I will say that sometimes they work well, while other times the scheme gets in the way of the gameplay. For example, in chapter 4 of the game I fought a giant Yakuza guy in a penthouse bar. The fighting area, which is restricted, was narrow, which presented some movement issues when it came to finding space to set Kiryu up and launch an attack. Sometimes the lack of space would have me pointing slightly the wrong way, which caused me to miss the bad guy completely. It didn’t help that sometimes the camera (which is controlled by the right thumbstick) only went so far before it handed itself back to you in manual mode. The camera did not automatically follow Kiryu, which isn’t a pleasant thing to have to deal with while fighting. Adjusting a camera while trying to position Kiryu’s body towards the enemy in a narrow room was quite frustrating to juggle during a fight. While the narrow room didn’t help things, the controls, especially the camera, were a huge pain in the bucket during fights. Not so much deal breakers, but not fun to toggle with when you’re trying to enjoy the game and get the most out of the experience.

Continuing with fighting, specially focusing on enemy A.I., it jumps from decent to incredibly difficult, depending on enemies. When you’re fighting typical enemies, street punks for example, you will find a lot of repetitiveness in their styles, as well as their defenses. It’s not bad for a lower level enemy, but there isn’t a variety, which causes some monotony in fun. This goes back to the large amount of street fights in the game. The rewards are nice, but the same ‘ol, same ‘ol can be hard to get into as you progress further and further in to the game. All of this changes when you run into a mid-level boss or boss (usually a Yakuza). The A.I. becomes a bit smarter, there is more defense involved and the moves become a bit more unpredictable. The patterns are repetitive, but when and how the enemy uses those patterns in a fight is what makes the boss fights challenging as hell. I know a lot of people have found this series difficult over the years, so this is probably the reason why. I love the boss fights, though, but wish there was just a bit more challenge in the lower-level fights.

Enemies aside, the game also features some nice interactive elements that make it a ‘choose your own adventure’ sort of deal. When you speak with characters you are given choices of dialogue, kind of what you would find in a point and click game. If you choose the right/wrong dialogue, then the moment you’re in changes just slightly with the dialogue choices you made. Now, I’m not saying the game is as deep as Knights of the Old Republic with this gameplay element, but choices affect the ‘moment’ you’re in (meaning the character you’re talking to, but without ramifications later on in the game). For example, there was a moment in the game where I was getting interrogated by a cop for having a kid with me in the middle of the evening hours. He didn’t believe I was the kid’s father and asked me a series of questions. I answered them correctly and he let us go. I forgot to save the game at this point, ended up dying later on down the street, which had me replay that dialogue again. Being a devious reviewer, I chose the other responses the second time around, which prompted new reactions from the cop, but somehow the moment ended the same way it did previously. I did this technique with a few other characters and came out with the same results. I suspect the freedom to choose your responses is firmly intact, but the end result of the conversation will always be the same. It’s a safe play that doesn’t overcomplicate the storyline or put developers in danger of having to branch out even further with their coding design plan. Flowcharting an open world game is probably nuts.

Getting back to story, the linear story and how it was designed is probably the sticking point for fans of the series. While the freedom later in other Yakuza games to start your own place and live within the game’s world is another selling point, the revenge story is a great way to press players to keep playing. The game does a great job of telling the story of Kiryu and adding some twists and turns that only should be found in a giant Hollywood production. The characters are real, they feel developed and three dimensional, which adds value to the overall package. The story that Sega tells in Yakuza Kiwami meets the perfect three-act structure of a good tale. Before we move on to presentation, I also have to commend Sega for keeping the Japanese dialogue intact with subtitles. That adds so much more value to the place the story is being told and the Yakuza presence. It was a good move by them that really adds another layer of ‘Japan’ to the Japanese centric storyline. I wish Shenmue had done this (Ah, no good).

Anyway, while the gameplay design in Yakuza has its faults that it carried over from the original title, especially in the controls/camera department, it still serves up a nice gameplay experience for the most part. The enemies are abundant, difficult at times, while the level tree and exploration is beautifully designed. This game is pretty epic for a Sega title not called Shenmue.

In terms of presentation, I’m a bit split. The upgrades on the PS4 Pro shine beautifully through, while the cutscenes fall a little flat, though still better than what you would have found on previous consoles. Starting with the positives, Sega does a damn fine job of bringing the small details in focus. For example, the clarity of the signage around the city and the abundance of people who populate the area is amazing to see. There’s a lot of light and life that goes through the visuals, which makes it seem like a big city, even if you’re restricted to a certain amount of it. The additional lighting features that the PS4 offers up also makes everything seem bright and Tokyo-like. If you’ve ever been to Tokyo, and you should go once before you die, it’s basically a light show of sorts. It’s gorgeous and overwhelming at times, as are the lights in the game. Other things that make the presentation very good include reflections in puddles. I know that sounds lame, but it’s a detail that is incredible to see. When Kiryu walks over a puddle in the rainy downtown Japanese city you can see his reflection off of it. That’s details, folks. Sega’s development team did a damn fine job of visually refining Yakuza and it was pulled off beautifully.

The cutscenes are somewhere in the middle, though. They have that last generation (or last-last generation) feel to them, thought he textures and details are done on current generation standards. Stiff hands and weird body movements will remind you where this was born, though.

So, at the end of the day is all of this worth your money? For $29.99, it’s worth the experience, especially if you’re a fan of the original series back in the heyday of Yakuza. Sega did a fantastic job of pulling this older title up into current console expectations. They could have sold this puppy for $49.99 and it still would be worth it. If this is your cup of tea, then you need to get it immediately.